Enviro Links: No Money for Spill Research, White House Rejects Carter’s Solar Panel, and More

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The internal report BP put out last week on the causes of the Deepwater Horizon disaster has been roundly criticized for downplaying BP’s share of the responsibility. The Wall Street Journal also reported that BP’s lawyers were allowed to review the report before it was made public.

The Associated Press digs through the $134 million in contracts the Obama administration awarded for work related to the Gulf oil spill, including $18,000 for some guy to keep track of and classify news stories about the government’s handling of the spill.

A lack of funding is keeping many independent researchers in the Gulf from working on studies that could provide crucial information about the impacts of the oil spill.

BP is telling analysts that it believes that the $20 billion set aside to compensate the victims of the spill will be more than adequate.

And in other environmental news:

The death toll following the explosion of a natural gas pipeline in San Bruno, Calif. last Thursday may be as high as seven, and six more people are still missing.

The White House turned away Jimmy Carter’s solar panel on Friday, which the group 350.org had delivered from Maine.

Climate change isn’t just threatening polar bears. A new report from the Center for Biological Diversity finds plenty of other Arctic critters at risk: the Arctic fox, the Pacific walrus, four types of seals, four types of whales, the sea butterfly, three types of seabirds caribou, and muskox are all at risk in a warming climate.

Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski may still make a bid to keep her seat as a third-party or write-in candidate.

The source of the oil leak in Michigan still hasn’t been found, though the EPA says crews are closing in on the site.

FACT:

Kate Sheppard was a staff reporter in Mother Jones' Washington bureau from 2009 to 2013. She is now a senior reporter and the energy and environment editor at The Huffington Post. She can be reached by email at kate (dot) sheppard (at) huffingtonpost (dot) com and you can follow her on Twitter @kate_sheppard.